The General and the Teenager
by AnimeGirl 144
Summary: Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.. Ross wants to get a one-up on the Hulk, and he may have found just the thing.


**I've become obsessed with **_Hulk and the Agents of_ S.M.A.S.H.**, and this somehow came to mind. This story is set pre-series.**

**I don't own the show, nor the comics in which the show is based on. C****'mon, do you all think I'm that old?**

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General Thunderbolt Ross prided himself as a man who valued order. As an officer of the U.S. Army, his whole goal was to bring about structured order in everything he did; in his military career and his domestic life. He was decorated for his strategic battle plans and his excellent leadership skills. Everything was going for him the way it should have.

And then the Hulk appeared.

He had known Bruce Banner personally since he was his daughter's suitor as well as a scientist contracted by the army to create more super-soldier serum that had been invented during World War II. However, the scientist had worked with gamma radiation, since the ingredients to the formula were lost; all that had remained was the replication of the procedure, as well as the notes written up by the late scientist. He thought gamma rays were the answer. He was wrong. Very wrong.

And from his failures, a monster that threatened order was created.

Ross, dedicated to order, followed after the monster, determined to eradicate him from the face of the Earth. He used the media to spread the propaganda that the Hulk was a monster to be feared and killed, and used top-grade weapons to stop him. However, the green-skinned powerhouse would get away, damaging various military weapons and vehicles and angering Ross more and more.

When defeated and nursing his wounds, Ross would review the tapes that weren't sent off to the media, trying to find a weakness he could expose and finally get a one-up on the rampaging monster that threatened his way of life. It was on one of the nights that he saw what he had been missing on all the other tapes: a teenager was caught on camera, helping the Hulk escape. Interested, he used the army's super computer to get a cross reference on who the boy was. Data records pulled up the name Rick Jones, and with it, several clips of the boy being shown in various other clips that had been saved to the hard drive previously. How he had missed seeing the boy on the battlefield was beyond the aging general, but he now had what he needed to get one over on Hulk.

He sent out the boy's image to his top officers, instructing them to grab the boy if they see him when out in the field.

His opportunity came at the next crossing with the Hulk; Ross was forced to not be on sight, but he sent his men after the creature. He received a call that they had retreated to the local base they were using in their pursuit of the monster, though they had the boy in their midst. Pleased with the news, Ross went to go greet Talbolt.

"Where's the boy?" he asked once he arrived.

"In there," Talbolt said, nodding his head to the room behind Ross.

Ross opened the door, finding the teenage boy struggling to escape the confines of the handcuffs that were attached to the armrests of the chair he was confined to. Across from him was a table and another chair, meant for the general. Seeing the cuffs, Ross turned to his right hand man for an explanation. Talbolt didn't look guilty at all.

"He attempted to escape already," he answered the unspoken question. "This was the only way to keep him stationary."

Ross nodded in understanding and agreement. The general wanted to interrogate the boy before the Hulk arrived, and he could only do that if he had a subject to talk to.

"Very well," he responded. "Wait outside while I deal with the child."

"I'm a teenager," Rick shot back, unafraid of where he was.

Talbolt nodded and closed the door. Ross walked over to the table and pulled out a chair, responding to Rick with,

"Son, when you get to my age, everyone is a child."

"That must mean everyone is a child to you, old man," Rick responded haughtily, calming down enough that he was no longer chaffing his wrists against the cool steel of the cuffs.

Ross released an annoyed huff. This boy wasn't at all what he expected; Ross expected him to be a little more concerned about his surroundings.

"While I'm speaking to you, I will be addressed with respect," he said to the boy.

"I'm not in the army," Rick argued. "So I really don't have to."

Ross would admit that Rick had him there, but he wasn't going to let the kid win the round.

"As your _elder_, you'll respect me."

"Respect the guy who had his men go and nab me? Yeah, not happening ol' geezer," Rick scoffed. "I'm just waiting for the Hulk to get me out of here."

Well, at least they were now on subject with what he wanted to talk about.

"And what makes you so sure he'll come?" Ross questioned.

"Because we're buddies," Rick answered back calmly, making it sound like a fact.

"He's a monster," Ross argued. "Monsters don't have friends."

Rick's face twisted in fury, and he leaned forward in his seat. Ross stayed calm, watching the teenager's every movement.

"He's not a monster," Rick snarled. "I'm getting tired of you feeding these lies to the media. He's just misunderstood, and if you'd stop firing shots at him every two days, you'd see that he's actually a hero!"

"He's gone on rampages and destroyed millions of dollars of U.S. military equipment."

"That's because you started it!"

"I started nothing. The Hulk decided to go and attack the lab facility he had been working in, and I was called in to neutralize the threat," Ross argued.

"That wasn't his fault!" Rick shouted, sounding distressed.

"Oh really? And who else can we put the blame on for making that monstrosity?" Ross shot back, growing agitated with the child.

"Me, alright!" Rick shouted, jumping to his feet as an emotional response to the situation. His wrists were aching from the angle they were in due to the cuffs still securely around them.

Ross blinked at the teenager once, allowing his answer to sink in. When it finally did, he was more confused than ever. There was never a report about this kid being there when Bruce was changed. Where was this coming from? The anger drained out of Jones in no time, and he fell back into the chair, his shoulders slumping in what Ross would describe as defeat. A look of remorse crossed the teens face as he stared at his lap.

"I was out in the desert, at the testing site, when Bruce was about to start his experiment. It went south because some jealous scientist pushed the button while Bruce was saving my sorry hide. So if you're going to blame someone, then you should be putting the blame on me," Rick confessed. His eyes grew steely, and he glared up at the general, once again regaining his spunky spirit. "But the Hulk is my friend, and I won't let you go after him anymore. I've vowed to reverse all the damage you've been doing to his image. And one day, the world is going to see him for what he truly is - a hero. And they'll only see you as the monster."

Ross snarled at the boy, getting to his feet to come off as intimidating, but was cut short when they heard a monstrous roar from out in the hallway. Rick smirked when he heard the familiar roar, watching with glee the way Ross's face turned from surprised to angry.

"That wasn't that long at all," Rick commented, just to rile up the general. "I bet he'll be here any moment now."

"He has no idea where you're hidden," Ross shot back.

"And that's going to stop him from smashing through here?" Rick challenged with an expectant eyebrow raised.

Ross glared at the boy, thinking of a comeback to the remark, but he wasn't able to because the big, green unstoppable force created by science appeared in the room, making a whole in the wall large enough for him to enter through. He had intended to just smash it and continue on his merry way to find his best friend, but stopped when he saw said boy in the room. Seeing that he was more or less strapped to the chair made Hulk's anger level skyrocket another couple meters, and he turned his anger on the one man that could elicit such an emotion from name alone - _Ross._

Roaring fiercely, he used the back of his hand to send Ross colliding through the concrete wall, just before the general had been able to grab his gun and use it against the Hulk. The Hulk had intended to go after Ross and put a permanent end to the problem once and for all (because kidnapping his friend was going _too far_), but Rick managed to draw attention away from Ross and onto him.

"Hey, hey buddy," Rick called, watching his friend pause in his stalking. "Mind getting these cuffs? They're kind of hurting me right now. Steel really isn't fun when it's impressing on my skin."

Hulk didn't even bother to hesitate; he walked over and broke the items with a simple pinch of his fingers, effectively shattering them into little pieces. Rick immediately rubbed his wrists once they were free. They were a little red, mainly from him trying to get out of them, which had rubbed his skin against their steel.

"Thanks, those were really annoying," Rick commented casually, like being kidnapped and trapped to a chair was no big deal. "What do you say about getting out of here and getting something to eat?"

Hulk stared down at his friend with a blank face. He was wondering how Rick could be so calm, given what had just happened. However, the Hulk couldn't see any injuries on his person, so Ross mustn't have done anything pass cuffing him to the chair. With a simple nod, he helped the boy onto his back before hopping out of the base, leaving cracking concrete in his wake.

Ross, groaning from the hit he had taken, sat up and looked at the gapping whole in the ceiling. The boy had managed to get away, but at least the whole thing hadn't been a complete loss; Ross now knew the origin of the Hulk's existence, as well as his weakness.

This wouldn't be the last Rick saw of Ross.


End file.
